Changelog

Shelf sync. The Mac no longer takes an outdated copy of another device's Shelf for the current one, so a file removed on iPhone disappears here too. A Shelf still downloading from iCloud is reported as such instead of "nothing waiting", results show as a short notice instead of an alert, and messages are translated. Dragging a file from an SFTP server onto the Shelf downloads it; when something cannot be added, the Shelf says why. Devices on versions older than 2.12.0 no longer see Shelf items added from newer ones.

Pause and Resume. Pausing an SFTP transfer stops it downloading in the background; Resume continues from the last byte written and starts over if the source changed meanwhile. A transfer resumed after a pause or after the app was quit now arrives under its real name instead of a temporary ecswap- name.

iPhone and iPad. A new install opens on a start screen that explains the empty EmpiricCommander folder and offers the ways in: add a folder, connect a server, or export from Photos. On iPhone in landscape, Get Info and the filter stay open when you rotate; Undo and Redo in the keyboard bar work again. On iPad, Select All in selection mode.

Updating from 2.16.0 or older? 2.16.1 fixed a crash when dragging a file from a server pane on macOS 26 and later.

Updating from 2.15.4 or older? You are also getting 2.16.0:

EC themes. Two new built-in themes, EC Dark (navy) and EC Light (cream), carried through browsing, Settings, the editor and diffs, on Mac, iPhone and iPad.

Two panes in landscape on iPhone. On Pro Max and Plus, landscape shows both panes, with one Copy / Move pill on the seam and the transfer panel as a corner card.

Selection mode and paused transfers on iPhone. Select turns a tap into a checkmark; a running transfer can be paused and resumed.

Editor. Matching brackets are highlighted next to the cursor and Enter keeps the line's indentation. In Settings > Editors, a new extension can be bound to the built-in editor and preview.

Select by pattern. Select files in a pane by a name pattern, Commander style.

Git. The branch chip updates after a switch, Switch Branch shows short names with the current one checked, a repository nested in another shows its own branch, the arrow keys move between commits in Log, and cloning a project with submodules fills them in. Clone names the connections whose device key Git cannot use.

FTP and SFTP. FTP times match the server, old entries no longer show 00:00, accented folder names list their contents, and an SFTP link to a folder opens as a folder.

Text files. Latin-1 files preview and compare as text instead of being treated as binary.

Transfers. A large upload shows progress from the start, Undo after a move between servers works, and Git status in the file list no longer slows scrolling.

Dates. The Modified column shows the year; Google Drive shows date and time.

Starts on iOS 17 and 18 again. On iPhones and iPads still on iOS 17 or 18, recent versions could crash at launch; EC opens normally again. The Mac app was not affected.

Updating from 2.15.3 or older? You are also getting everything since. 2.15.4: switching branch no longer discards uncommitted changes (changes that do not conflict move with you, a switch that would overwrite them is refused), the changed-file icons come back after a switch, and Log, Diff and Stash fit a smaller window. 2.15.3: folders holding many Git repositories show their list straight away, choosing a Search result opens its folder with the file selected, Word wrap works again after you turn it off and on, Photos shows real names in the path and status bars, and grid view shortens long names in the middle so the extension stays visible. 2.15.2: copying photos no longer reports a failure for photos that arrived, copying the same photos again asks first (Replace, Keep Both or Skip), and open folders in the tree view refresh after a copy. 2.15.1: a folder the server refuses shows a lock and the server's reason instead of "Connection lost"; editing a connection updates the tabs already open on it; the status bar names what you selected; several files dragged to Finder all arrive (macOS 26 and later). 2.15.0 added a new text preview that copies across lines without the line numbers and opens text files up to 100 MB in full. 2.14.3: SFTP and SSH connect to servers that only offer AES-128 in CTR mode. 2.14.2: an interrupted copy to an SMB, SFTP or FTP server no longer empties the file it was replacing. 2.14.1: a file dragged in from Finder from another disk is copied, not moved, with a progress bar and a Cancel. 2.14.0: RAR archives open in the app itself, read-only.

Dragging from a server. Dragging a file from an SFTP, SMB or other server pane no longer closes EC on macOS 26 and later.

iPad. Long-pressing a file or folder on an SFTP or SMB connection no longer closes EC.

Updating from 2.15.4 or older? You are also getting 2.16.0:

EC themes. Two new built-in themes, EC Dark (navy) and EC Light (cream), carried through browsing, Settings, the editor and diffs, on Mac, iPhone and iPad.

Two panes in landscape on iPhone. On Pro Max and Plus, landscape shows both panes, with one Copy / Move pill on the seam and the transfer panel as a corner card.

Selection mode and paused transfers on iPhone. Select turns a tap into a checkmark; a running transfer can be paused and resumed.

Editor. Matching brackets are highlighted next to the cursor and Enter keeps the line's indentation. In Settings > Editors, a new extension can be bound to the built-in editor and preview.

Select by pattern. Select files in a pane by a name pattern, Commander style.

Git. The branch chip updates after a switch, Switch Branch shows short names with the current one checked, a repository nested in another shows its own branch, the arrow keys move between commits in Log, and cloning a project with submodules fills them in. Clone names the connections whose device key Git cannot use.

FTP and SFTP. FTP times match the server, old entries no longer show 00:00, accented folder names list their contents, and an SFTP link to a folder opens as a folder.

Text files. Latin-1 files preview and compare as text instead of being treated as binary.

Transfers. A large upload shows progress from the start, Undo after a move between servers works, and Git status in the file list no longer slows scrolling.

Dates. The Modified column shows the year; Google Drive shows date and time.

Starts on iOS 17 and 18 again. On iPhones and iPads still on iOS 17 or 18, recent versions could crash at launch; EC opens normally again. The Mac app was not affected.

Updating from 2.15.3 or older? You are also getting everything since. 2.15.4: switching branch no longer discards uncommitted changes (changes that do not conflict move with you, a switch that would overwrite them is refused), the changed-file icons come back after a switch, and Log, Diff and Stash fit a smaller window. 2.15.3: folders holding many Git repositories show their list straight away, choosing a Search result opens its folder with the file selected, Word wrap works again after you turn it off and on, Photos shows real names in the path and status bars, and grid view shortens long names in the middle so the extension stays visible. 2.15.2: copying photos no longer reports a failure for photos that arrived, copying the same photos again asks first (Replace, Keep Both or Skip), and open folders in the tree view refresh after a copy. 2.15.1: a folder the server refuses shows a lock and the server's reason instead of "Connection lost"; editing a connection updates the tabs already open on it; the status bar names what you selected; several files dragged to Finder all arrive (macOS 26 and later). 2.15.0 added a new text preview that copies across lines without the line numbers and opens text files up to 100 MB in full. 2.14.3: SFTP and SSH connect to servers that only offer AES-128 in CTR mode. 2.14.2: an interrupted copy to an SMB, SFTP or FTP server no longer empties the file it was replacing. 2.14.1: a file dragged in from Finder from another disk is copied, not moved, with a progress bar and a Cancel. 2.14.0: RAR archives open in the app itself, read-only.

EC themes. Two new built-in themes, EC Dark (navy) and EC Light (cream), carried through browsing, Settings, the editor and diffs, on Mac, iPhone and iPad.

Two panes in landscape on iPhone. On Pro Max and Plus, landscape shows both panes, with one Copy / Move pill on the seam and the transfer panel as a corner card.

Selection mode and paused transfers on iPhone. Select turns a tap into a checkmark; a running transfer can be paused and resumed.

Editor. Matching brackets are highlighted next to the cursor and Enter keeps the line's indentation. In Settings > Editors, a new extension can be bound to the built-in editor and preview.

Select by pattern. Select files in a pane by a name pattern, Commander style.

Git. The branch chip updates after a switch, Switch Branch shows short names with the current one checked, a repository nested in another shows its own branch, the arrow keys move between commits in Log, and cloning a project with submodules fills them in. Clone names the connections whose device key Git cannot use.

FTP and SFTP. FTP times match the server, old entries no longer show 00:00, accented folder names list their contents, and an SFTP link to a folder opens as a folder.

Text files. Latin-1 files preview and compare as text instead of being treated as binary.

Transfers. A large upload shows progress from the start, Undo after a move between servers works, and Git status in the file list no longer slows scrolling.

Dates. The Modified column shows the year; Google Drive shows date and time.

Starts on iOS 17 and 18 again. On iPhones and iPads still on iOS 17 or 18, recent versions could crash at launch; EC opens normally again. The Mac app was not affected.

Updating from 2.15.3 or older? You are also getting everything since. 2.15.4: switching branch no longer discards uncommitted changes (changes that do not conflict move with you, a switch that would overwrite them is refused), the changed-file icons come back after a switch, and Log, Diff and Stash fit a smaller window. 2.15.3: folders holding many Git repositories show their list straight away, choosing a Search result opens its folder with the file selected, Word wrap works again after you turn it off and on, Photos shows real names in the path and status bars, and grid view shortens long names in the middle so the extension stays visible. 2.15.2: copying photos no longer reports a failure for photos that arrived, copying the same photos again asks first (Replace, Keep Both or Skip), and open folders in the tree view refresh after a copy. 2.15.1: a folder the server refuses shows a lock and the server's reason instead of "Connection lost"; editing a connection updates the tabs already open on it; the status bar names what you selected; several files dragged to Finder all arrive (macOS 26 and later). 2.15.0 added a new text preview that copies across lines without the line numbers and opens text files up to 100 MB in full. 2.14.3: SFTP and SSH connect to servers that only offer AES-128 in CTR mode. 2.14.2: an interrupted copy to an SMB, SFTP or FTP server no longer empties the file it was replacing. 2.14.1: a file dragged in from Finder from another disk is copied, not moved, with a progress bar and a Cancel. 2.14.0: RAR archives open in the app itself, read-only.

Switching branch keeps your work. Switching branch in EC, on Mac, iPhone and iPad, no longer discards uncommitted changes. Changes that do not conflict move with you to the new branch, and a switch that would overwrite them is refused with your files left as they were.

Git change icons. The changed-file icons in the file list come back after a branch switch instead of staying blank.

Git sheets fit the window. Log, Diff and Stash no longer spill past a smaller window, and Close stays in reach.

Updating from 2.15.2 or older? You are also getting everything since. 2.15.3: folders holding many Git repositories show their list straight away, choosing a Search result opens its folder with the file selected, Word wrap works again after you turn it off and on, Photos shows real names in the path and status bars, and grid view shortens long names in the middle so the extension stays visible. 2.15.2: copying photos no longer reports a failure for photos that arrived, copying the same photos again asks first (Replace, Keep Both or Skip), and open folders in the tree view refresh after a copy. 2.15.1: a folder the server refuses shows a lock and the server's reason instead of "Connection lost"; editing a connection updates the tabs already open on it; the status bar names what you selected; several files dragged to Finder all arrive (macOS 26 and later). 2.15.0 added a new text preview that copies across lines without the line numbers and opens text files up to 100 MB in full. 2.14.3: SFTP and SSH connect to servers that only offer AES-128 in CTR mode. 2.14.2: an interrupted copy to an SMB, SFTP or FTP server no longer empties the file it was replacing. 2.14.1: a file dragged in from Finder from another disk is copied, not moved, with a progress bar and a Cancel. 2.14.0: RAR archives open in the app itself, read-only.

Folders full of Git repositories open straight away. A folder holding hundreds of Git repositories used to take seconds to show its list, because every repository row checked its own status first. The list now appears immediately.

Search selects what it found. Choosing a result in Search opens its folder with the file selected and scrolled into view, instead of leaving you at the top of the folder.

Word wrap works again after you turn it off. In the editor, turning Word wrap off and back on now wraps long lines at the window edge again.

Photos shows real names. The path bar and the status bar show "All Photos" and "Years / 2024 / March" instead of internal names, and the Photos folders are translated into German, French, Spanish and Romanian.

Readable names in the grid. In grid view, a name like "IMG_0001.JPG" no longer breaks inside its extension; long names are shortened in the middle so the extension stays visible.

Updating from 2.15.1 or older? You are also getting everything since. 2.15.2: copying photos no longer reports a failure for photos that arrived, copying the same photos again asks first (Replace, Keep Both or Skip), and open folders in the tree view refresh after a copy. 2.15.1: a folder the server refuses shows a lock and the server's reason instead of "Connection lost"; editing a connection updates the tabs already open on it; the status bar names what you selected; several files dragged to Finder all arrive (macOS 26 and later). 2.15.0 added a new text preview that copies across lines without the line numbers and opens text files up to 100 MB in full. 2.14.3: SFTP and SSH connect to servers that only offer AES-128 in CTR mode. 2.14.2: an interrupted copy to an SMB, SFTP or FTP server no longer empties the file it was replacing. 2.14.1: a file dragged in from Finder from another disk is copied, not moved, with a progress bar and a Cancel. 2.14.0: RAR archives open in the app itself, read-only.

Copying photos no longer reports a failure for photos that arrived. Since 2.14.1, copying photos from the Photos library to a folder or a network share showed a "Failed" alert even though every photo was copied. On iPhone the summary at the end went missing and appeared later over another screen. Both are fixed.

Copying the same photos again asks first. Photos already in the folder now bring up Replace, Keep Both or Skip, instead of quietly adding numbered copies. Kept copies are numbered the same way everywhere ("IMG_0001 2.jpg"). A destination folder you deleted and made again is treated as empty, so its photos are offered again.

Open folders in the tree view refresh. A file copied or moved into a folder you have expanded in the tree view now shows up straight away, and the folders you had open stay open.

iPhone Duo. Folding and unfolding keeps both panes where you were, including Photos.

Also fixed.

• On Mac, the photo copy and summary windows no longer cut off their labels, and each menu shows one arrow.
• On iPhone, the row at the top of a folder shows where you are, and a long press on Up or on that row lists every folder above it so you can jump straight there.
• On iPhone and iPhone Duo, the screen shown when the trial ends scrolls, so Sign In is always reachable.

Updating from 2.15.0 or older? You are also getting everything since. 2.15.1: a folder the server refuses shows a lock and the server's reason instead of "Connection lost"; editing a connection updates the tabs already open on it; the status bar names what you selected; several files dragged to Finder all arrive (macOS 26 and later). 2.15.0 prepared EmpiricCommander for iPhone Duo (two panes unfolded, the phone layout folded), added a new text preview that copies across lines without the line numbers and opens text files up to 100 MB in full, and made the Files app on iPhone and iPad connect over SFTP only to servers whose key you approved. 2.14.3: SFTP and SSH connect to servers that only offer AES-128 in CTR mode. 2.14.2: an interrupted copy to an SMB, SFTP or FTP server no longer empties the file it was replacing. 2.14.1: a file dragged in from Finder from another disk is copied, not moved, with a progress bar and a Cancel. 2.14.0: RAR archives open in the app itself, read-only. And from earlier releases: on iPhone, a real two-pane layout in landscape on the Plus and Pro Max sizes; a Shelf that reaches your Mac; 7z and tar archives opened in the app; an interrupted SFTP or FTP transfer that resumes where it stopped; and every error message translated.

A folder the server refuses no longer says "Connection lost". When a server does not let you open a folder, the pane shows a lock and the server's own reason, with Go Back, Try Again and Edit Connection. Reconnect stays for a connection that really dropped, and a WebDAV server error now counts as one instead of showing a lock.

Editing a connection updates the tabs already open on it. A new start folder, host or password applies straight away, whether you edit from the pane, the connections list or Settings. A start folder that does not exist on the server now offers Edit Connection, not only Go Home.

The status bar names what you selected. One selected item shows its name instead of the folder path a second time; several show how many and their total size. With a pointer, hovering a row shows its full name.

iPhone Duo. A preview opened while unfolded stays open when you fold, and the pane you were working in stays the one on screen.

Also fixed.

• Several files dragged from EmpiricCommander to Finder all arrive, not only the first (macOS 26 and later).
• On Mac, Cmd+F in an editor you just opened searches the file instead of filtering the pane behind it.
• On Mac, a Filter left open in one pane no longer holds on to the arrow keys when you work in the other pane.
• On Mac, Open With, Set as default shows each app's icon.
• On iPhone and iPad, Find in the text editor highlights the match it jumps to.
• On iPhone and iPad with a hardware keyboard, Filter and the terminal get every letter you type, not only the first.
• The Photos access buttons in the pane are translated.

Updating from 2.14.x or older? You are also getting everything since. 2.15.0 prepared EmpiricCommander for iPhone Duo (two panes unfolded, the phone layout folded), added a new text preview that copies across lines without the line numbers and opens text files up to 100 MB in full, and made the Files app on iPhone and iPad connect over SFTP only to servers whose key you approved. 2.14.3: SFTP and SSH connect to servers that only offer AES-128 in CTR mode, such as ProFTPD with mod_sftp and a restricted cipher list; a server that accepts only AES-256 or AES-192 in CTR mode still does not connect. 2.14.2: an interrupted copy to an SMB, SFTP or FTP server no longer empties the file it was replacing, the app asks before overwriting a file it had left hidden on a share, and on the Mac a file dragged into iCloud Drive, Dropbox or OneDrive is copied instead of moved. 2.14.1: a file dragged in from Finder from another disk is copied, not moved, with a progress bar, a Cancel and an overwrite prompt; a single large file no longer sits at 0% and jumps to done; cancelling a copy really stops it; undoing a large move shows progress. 2.14.0: RAR archives open in the app itself, read-only, and SMB no longer loses your file on a cancelled copy or on a name that differs only in capital letters. And from earlier releases: on iPhone, a real two-pane layout in landscape on the Plus and Pro Max sizes; a Shelf that reaches your Mac; 7z, tar, tar.gz, tar.bz2 and tar.xz archives opened in the app with no p7zip installed; an interrupted SFTP or FTP transfer that resumes where it stopped; and every error message translated.

Prepared for iPhone Duo. Two panes side by side when unfolded, the single-pane phone layout when folded.

A new text preview. Select across as many lines as you like and copy it in one piece, with line wrapping on or off, and the line numbers stay out of the clipboard. Numbers sit beside their line at every text size, long lines scroll sideways with a visible scroll bar, and previews are no longer cut at 100 lines: text files up to 100 MB open in full. Syntax colours for C, C++, Objective-C, Go, Rust, Java, Kotlin, Ruby, PHP, SQL and Lua.

Safer SFTP in the Files app. On iPhone and iPad, the Files app now connects only to a server whose key you approved in EmpiricCommander. A server you never approved shows a note asking you to approve it first; a server whose key changed shows a warning instead of your files.

Drag and drop.

• A Markdown file dragged onto another pane is copied again (macOS 27 had turned that drop into a silent no-op).
• A file dragged from Finder onto a server pane is uploaded instead of failing with "File not found".
• A file dropped into the folder it is already in says so instead of doing nothing.
• A Finder drop that moves a file (same disk) can be undone for 10 seconds, like every other move.

Also fixed.

• The editor on iPhone now has Undo, Redo, Wrap and Done above the keyboard; the editor font follows the text size setting live.
• Context menus on Mac show their icons.
• Filter fields no longer autocorrect or capitalise what you type.
• Sheets such as Auto-Organize and Settings follow your theme on iPhone and iPad.
• The Mac window title shows the version and build, which makes bug reports easier to match.

Coming from an older version? You are also getting everything since. 2.14.3: SFTP and SSH connect to servers that only offer AES-128 in CTR mode, such as ProFTPD with mod_sftp and a restricted cipher list; a server that accepts only AES-256 or AES-192 in CTR mode still does not connect. 2.14.2: an interrupted copy to an SMB, SFTP or FTP server no longer empties the file it was replacing, the app asks before overwriting a file it had left hidden on a share, and on the Mac a file dragged into iCloud Drive, Dropbox or OneDrive is copied instead of moved. 2.14.1: a file dragged in from Finder from another disk is copied, not moved, with a progress bar, a Cancel and an overwrite prompt; a single large file no longer sits at 0% and jumps to done; cancelling a copy really stops it; undoing a large move shows progress. 2.14.0: RAR archives open in the app itself, read-only, and SMB no longer loses your file on a cancelled copy or on a name that differs only in capital letters. And from earlier releases: on iPhone, a real two-pane layout in landscape on the Plus and Pro Max sizes; a Shelf that reaches your Mac; 7z, tar, tar.gz, tar.bz2 and tar.xz archives opened in the app with no p7zip installed; an interrupted SFTP or FTP transfer that resumes where it stopped; and every error message translated.

SFTP and SSH connect to servers that only offer AES-128 in CTR mode. A server configured that way, such as ProFTPD with mod_sftp and a restricted cipher list, closed the connection as soon as the app reached it, while other clients got in. The app now offers aes128-ctr after the ciphers it already used, so servers that support both keep the stronger choice. A server that accepts only AES-256 or AES-192 in CTR mode still does not connect.

Coming from an older version? You are also getting everything since. 2.14.2: an interrupted copy to an SMB, SFTP or FTP server no longer empties the file it was replacing, the app asks before overwriting a file it had left hidden on a share, and on the Mac a file dragged into iCloud Drive, Dropbox or OneDrive is copied instead of moved. 2.14.1: a file dragged in from Finder from another disk is copied, not moved, with a progress bar, a Cancel and an overwrite prompt; a single large file no longer sits at 0% and jumps to done; cancelling a copy really stops it; undoing a large move shows progress. 2.14.0: RAR archives open in the app itself, read-only, and SMB no longer loses your file on a cancelled copy or on a name that differs only in capital letters. And from earlier releases: on iPhone, a real two-pane layout in landscape on the Plus and Pro Max sizes; a Shelf that reaches your Mac; 7z, tar, tar.gz, tar.bz2 and tar.xz archives opened in the app with no p7zip installed; an interrupted SFTP or FTP transfer that resumes where it stopped; and every error message translated.

2.14.0 stopped a cancelled Replace from destroying the file you were replacing. This finishes the job for the case where the app never asked. When it did not recognise that a file was already there, it wrote straight onto it - and on SMB, SFTP and FTP that write empties the file before the first byte leaves, so a dropped connection or a Cancel could leave a fraction of a file where a finished one used to be, with the original gone. Nothing is written onto an existing file any more: the bytes land beside it and only take its place once they are all there.

The app asks before it overwrites. A file it had written itself could be left hidden on a share, and the check that looks for collisions could not see it, so a second copy of the same file went through without a question. It sees hidden files now, and nothing it copies to a share is left invisible.

Dragging a file into iCloud Drive, Dropbox or OneDrive copies it instead of moving it. Those folders sit on the same disk, so the Finder rule the app followed read the drag as a move and took the file out of the folder you dragged it from. Dragging between two ordinary local folders still moves, as it always did.

Fixed: a tab open in iCloud Drive shows the cloud instead of a plain folder, and a copy whose destination the app cannot read stops with an error instead of going ahead as if the folder were empty.

Coming from an older version? You are also getting everything since - on iPhone, a real two-pane layout in landscape on the Plus and Pro Max sizes, with a rail for Sources, Connections, Shelf and Settings; a Shelf that reaches your Mac rather than only another Mac; and archives opened in the app itself - 7z, tar, tar.gz, tar.bz2, tar.xz, and RAR. On the Mac, the same archives with no p7zip installed, folders on a server that can be favorites, saved folder-sync pairs that run on a trigger, and a drag out of Finder that shows progress, can be cancelled, asks before it overwrites and no longer empties the folder you dragged from. On both, an interrupted SFTP or FTP transfer resumes where it stopped - SMB uploads still restart from the beginning - the pane you navigate in becomes the active one, a progress bar that used to sit at zero and jump to a hundred now moves, and every error message is translated, where hundreds of them used to appear in English whatever your language.

2.14.1 is a repair release. Everything in it was found in the first day of using 2.14.0.

Dragging files in from Finder

• A file dragged in from another disk - a USB stick, an external drive, a mounted share - is now copied, and stays where it was. Until now it was moved off, which is not what Finder does and not what the gesture means.
• The drag now shows a progress bar and can be cancelled. Before, a large drag looked like nothing was happening.
• Dropping onto a name that already exists asks what to do, instead of overwriting it.
• A drag that fails now says so. Before, it failed silently.

Progress, and stopping

• A single large file no longer sits at 0% and then jumps to finished.
• The bar names the places you are copying between - the stick, the folder - instead of calling both ends "On My Mac".
• Cancelling a copy now really stops it. A cancelled copy used to finish quietly and leave the file sitting there under its real name, with the app reporting it as cancelled.
• The button that cancels a transfer is big enough to hit on the first try.
• Undoing a large move shows a progress bar. Before, the app looked frozen for as long as the move had taken.

Panels

• The pane you navigate in becomes the active one, so the next keystroke goes where you are looking.
• The inactive pane reads as inactive, rather than as a slightly paler version of the active one.
• Opening a tab in the other pane makes that pane the active one, so the next thing you do happens where you just looked.

Connections

• A port you typed yourself is kept when you change the connection type. It used to be replaced by the new type's default without a word, and the error that followed blamed the server.

Coming from an older version? You are also getting everything in 2.14.0: a cancelled copy to a network share no longer deletes the file that was already there, a name differing only in capital letters asks instead of being overwritten, shares negotiate SMB 3 up to 3.1.1 with AES-CMAC signing, RAR archives open in the app itself, the Shelf crosses devices, and About lists every open-source component we ship.

2.14.0 is about not losing a file. Three ways a copy to a network share could go wrong are gone, and one of them destroyed data.

Copying to a network share

• Cancelling a copy no longer deletes the file that was already there. Until now, cancelling part-way through overwriting an existing file left you with neither the old one nor the new one.
• A file whose name differs only in capital letters now asks what to do - Replace, Keep both or Skip. Before, it was overwritten silently, because the name looked new to us and did not to the server.
• Starting a second copy immediately after cancelling the first one works. The teardown used to reach past its own connection and break the next one.
• A large copy started after a few minutes of browsing no longer begins with a retry. The connection it uses had been sitting unused long enough for the server to close it.
• A connection dropped mid-listing is picked up again instead of reporting a network error.

Network shares speak SMB 3

• Connections now negotiate SMB 3, up to 3.1.1, and sign with AES-CMAC, where before the app spoke SMB 2 only.
• There is a per-connection "Require encryption" switch. Turn it on and a server that will not encrypt is refused rather than quietly continued in the clear.
• A share that refuses you now says which share refused, instead of blaming the folder you were opening.

Archives

• RAR archives open in the app itself, on Mac, iPhone and iPad, with no command-line tool installed. EmpiricCommander reads RAR and never creates one.
• Extracting twice no longer collides: the second extraction gets its own folder, including when the folder name contains a dot.
• An extraction that fails no longer leaves an empty folder behind.

Every third-party licence now ships with the app

• About now has an Acknowledgements screen listing every open-source component we ship, with its version, licence and copyright.

Shelf

• The Shelf finally crosses devices. On iPhone and iPad, point it at iCloud Drive once and a file staged on your Mac shows up on the phone, and the other way round.

Panels and windows

• A folder list has a row to the folder above it, so you can go up without a keyboard.
• Coming back out of a folder returns you to the row you came from, in both the list and the grid.
• A folder that reported a count and then drew nothing draws its files.
• The editor tells you when the file changed underneath it, rather than at Save.
• The Home button and its tooltip name the machine they belong to.
• The window title keeps its version and licence status when macOS restores the window instead of creating it.
• A startup that could hang on a watched folder does not.

Coming from an older version? You are also getting everything since - on iPhone, a real two-pane layout in landscape on the Plus and Pro Max sizes, with a rail for Sources, Connections, Shelf and Settings; a Shelf that reaches your Mac rather than only another Mac, with remote files downloaded first so they can actually be pasted; and archives opened in the app itself - 7z, tar, tar.gz, tar.bz2 and tar.xz. On the Mac, the same archives with no p7zip installed, folders on a server that can be favorites, and saved folder-sync pairs that run on a trigger. On both, an interrupted SFTP or FTP transfer resumes where it stopped - SMB uploads still restart from the beginning, because the write the app uses truncates the file - and every error message is translated, where hundreds of them used to appear in English whatever your language.

2.13.0 reads archives in the app itself - including on iPhone and iPad.

Archives

• 7z, tar, tar.gz, tar.bz2 and tar.xz open on iPhone and iPad, where until now only ZIP did.
• On the Mac the same formats no longer need p7zip or any command-line tool installed: the app reads them itself.
• A .tar.gz is finally read as a tar inside a gzip, not as an unknown file.
• A single .gz, .bz2 or .xz file opens directly.
• An archive too large to decode in memory says so instead of the app disappearing.

Favorites

• A folder on a server can be a favorite: drag it onto the sidebar from a server pane, or use "Add to Favorites" in the menu.
• Opening a remote favorite reuses the connection you already have open instead of starting a second session, and the pane shows the folder's contents straight away.
• A favorite whose connection you deleted says so instead of failing with a generic error.
• Favorites saved by earlier versions stay exactly as they were.

Editor

• If the file changed on disk while you had it open, Save asks what to do - overwrite, save a copy, or reload - instead of writing over someone else's work.
• Coming back to the app tells you when the file changed behind your back.

Permissions on Mac

• A folder that macOS will not let the app read now says that, with a button to the right place in System Settings, instead of looking like an empty folder or blaming file permissions.
• A folder that was deleted reads as missing, not as refused.

Updating from 2.8 or older? Three things arrived in between that this release builds on. 2.12 added Sync Sets: a saved folder pair with a run log and triggers - manual, from Shortcuts, at app launch, and on Mac also every N hours or when a volume mounts. An unattended run stops itself if it would delete too much of the destination. 2.12.1 made the app speak your language when something goes wrong: 276 sentences, including the error messages, shipped in English in every language before that. And 2.12.2 finished the interrupted-transfer story: a transfer whose network dropped says it is retrying instead of sitting frozen at a percentage, and the partial file left on the server is deleted - on its own once the network is back, if it could not be deleted at the time.

2.12.2 fixes what broke under your hand: keys, selection, and interrupted transfers.

Keyboard and editing

• Cmd+F in the editor opens the editor's find bar, not the pane filter.
• Esc in the find bar closes the bar, not the whole window.
• Cmd+Z in the editor undoes your typing rather than your last file operation, and it does so step by step instead of throwing away the whole session.
• The sidebar filter field no longer takes the keyboard away from the pane.
• The wrap toggle is there in the editor opened in its own window, too.

Panes and navigation

• A selected row looks selected on every theme, and the pane's own lines follow the theme instead of staying system grey.
• Leaving a folder with the arrow key puts the cursor back on the folder you came out of.
• Home on a remote pane opens your local home folder instead of asking the server for a path it does not have.
• Opt+Arrow sends the current folder to the other pane.
• A pane that is empty because macOS refused access says so, instead of looking like an empty folder.

Transfers

• A transfer whose network dropped no longer sits frozen at a percentage: it says it is retrying, and says when it gives up.
• When an interrupted transfer fails, the partial file left on the server is deleted - including when the deletion itself cannot be sent at that moment, in which case it is retried on its own once the network is back.
• A failed transfer says why in a sentence instead of an internal error code.

iPhone and iPad

• Favorites is on iPhone, with "Add to Favorites" in the context menu.
• The folder-size column appears on iPhone when you turn it on.
• In Sync Sets, "Triggers, limits and log" opens on the first tap.

Also

• SMB: a server that refuses the protocol says that, instead of reporting it as a permission problem on the folder.
• The copy dialog no longer describes a photo copy incorrectly.

Updating from 2.8 or older? Two things arrived in between that this release builds on. 2.12 added Sync Sets: a saved folder pair with a run log and triggers - manual, from Shortcuts, at app launch, and on Mac also every N hours or when a volume mounts. An unattended run stops itself if it would delete too much of the destination. 2.12.1 made the app speak your language when something goes wrong: 276 sentences, including the error messages, shipped in English in every language before that.

Error messages now appear in your language. If you use EmpiricCommander in German, Spanish, French or Romanian, the sentences you read at the exact moment something goes wrong - a connection dropped, a file was not found, an archive could not be opened - were still written in English, between buttons in your own language. Every one of them is translated now, and so is the part of the interface that had the same problem: the toolbar, the column headers, Sync Sets and the welcome screen. Two checks now run on every build, one comparing what the app actually asks for against what the translation catalogue holds, the other refusing any error message written so that it can never be translated.

An SMB connection survives leaving the app. Switch to Mail, come back thirty seconds later, open a file: the app reconnects instead of telling you the connection was lost. And when a server genuinely does close an idle session, the message says so, instead of listing guest Wi-Fi and a wrong share name as causes - which sent people to check a router that was fine. Verified against a Mac serving SMB; a NAS that closes sessions on its own schedule is the case this was built for, and reports from one are welcome.

On Mac, an encrypted vault shows its own name, and no invented free space. A mounted Cryptomator vault appeared in the sidebar under the identifier of its mount folder, with "0 KB free" beneath it - a measurement the app never had, because that kind of volume answers nothing when asked its size. It now shows the name the Finder shows, in the sidebar, in the tab and in the Drives menu, and where there is no size to report it says nothing rather than zero. A normal disk still shows its real free space, including when it is genuinely full.

The Shortcuts action that opens a folder works when the pane you left active was on a remote connection, instead of asking that server for a path on your own disk.

Themes apply completely when the system switches to dark, rather than leaving part of the screen on the old one.

Updating from 2.11.0 or older? You also get 2.12.0, whose main fix was that cancelling a copy could delete the file that was already there - most visible on network shares. Nothing to do - it all comes with this update.

A cancelled copy no longer deletes the file that was already there. If you stopped a copy that was about to overwrite an existing file, the cleanup could remove the original rather than only the half-written part. It showed up most on network shares. This is the most important fix in the release and the one reason to update even if you use nothing else here.

Sync Sets: a folder pair, saved, that syncs itself. Set up a folder sync once, give it a name, and it stays. From then on you start it with a button, or you let it start itself the moment you plug in an external drive. It starts only the set that actually has a side on that drive, not everything you have saved. Starting automatically is a Mac feature: iPhone and iPad do not get it, because the system does not offer that kind of scheduling.

Every set refuses a run that would delete too much. A Mirror sync removes whatever is no longer in the source, and a source that failed to mount looks exactly like a source that was emptied. So every set carries two limits, on from the start: it stops if the run would delete more than 20% of the destination or more than 1000 items. When it stops it touches nothing, writes the reason into the set's own log, and tells you. The limits are yours to change, and the log keeps the last 20 runs with what each one copied and deleted.

Deleting your account on the website reaches the app. Until now the app could stay open on an account that no longer existed. It now signs out on its own the next time you bring it to the front, without being restarted.

Rotation and landscape on iPhone. A text preview, an image viewer or Quick Look survives rotating the phone instead of closing itself. On Pro Max in landscape the dual pane, the transfer overlay and the Git screens fit the real width.

Open the folder you are in inside the other pane, from the arrow next to the folder path.

Updating from 2.9.0 or older? You also get everything from the releases in between, which is a longer list than this one. Nothing to do - it all comes with this update.

An interrupted transfer picks up where it stopped. Copying a large file over SFTP or FTP used to start from zero every time the connection dropped, the phone locked, or the app went to the background - on a 2 GB file over a shaky link that could mean never finishing at all. Now the transfer resumes from the last byte it can prove is on disk, and the card says "Resuming from 840 MB" so you can see it did. If the file changed on the server while you were away it restarts honestly and says why, rather than stitching two different files together. SMB uploads still restart from the beginning - the protocol write the app uses truncates the file - and the card no longer pretends otherwise.

Two panes on iPhone in landscape. Turn a Plus or Pro Max sideways and you get the real dual-pane Commander layout: two panes side by side, one selection bar for the active one, and a navigation rail down the side for Sources, Connections, the Shelf and Settings. Copying between two folders on a phone is now the same gesture it is on the Mac.

The Shelf works between your iPhone and your Mac. It used to be a buffer between Macs only. Now anything you drop on the Shelf on one device shows up on the other through iCloud Drive, including files pulled from a remote connection like Dropbox or an SFTP server, which are downloaded first so they can actually be pasted. Syncing tells you what it did - what it sent, what it received, or that everything already matches - and adding a large remote file shows that it is downloading instead of sitting still.

Send the current folder to the other pane. The Commander reflex that had no key: open the folder you are looking at in the opposite pane, without navigating to it twice.

One filter field over the whole sidebar. Type to narrow bookmarks, connections and volumes at once, instead of hunting down a long list.

A size column for folders, if you want one. Turn it on and folders get a real size, computed off the main thread - the list never stops scrolling while it counts.

Fixes. The editor window on the Mac closes when you discard your changes instead of leaving an empty window behind. On iPhone, the tab bar stays put when you rotate, Settings is reachable in landscape, and the preview and selection bar follow your theme. A transfer that fails stays on screen with its error instead of clearing itself two seconds later.

The built-in text editor on the Mac is a real window now, with a tab per file. It used to open as a sheet, which could not be resized or zoomed, so a file sat in a fixed slab no matter how big your display was. Open a second file and it becomes a second tab in the same window; open one that is already open and its tab comes forward. Save and Close sit on the tab row, the title bar says which file you are in and where it lives, and a tab with unsaved changes is marked - closing the window asks before it discards anything. Selecting several files and pressing F4 opens them all.

The Mac's file preview got the same treatment. F3 opens a resizable window with a tab per file, and a line longer than the window can now be scrolled to its end - previously it was cut off at the edge with no way to read the rest. Selecting several files previews them all.

Line numbers in the Mac editor line up with their lines. Every number sat lower than the line it belonged to, by a gap that grew down the file, so on a wrapped file the first lines had no number at all and the last ones pointed at empty space. They also stayed put when the window was resized and the text rewrapped. Both are fixed, along with a number sitting slightly high against a blank line and, on a light theme under a dark system, numbers drawn in a colour so close to the gutter behind them that they could not be read at all.

The editor follows your theme and text size while it is open. Changing the colour theme or the icon size used to leave the open editor with the colours and the font it started with - and on a dark theme that meant unreadable text until it was closed and reopened.

Files with no extension open properly on iPhone. A file like authorized_keys showed the grey "data" card instead of its contents and had no Edit entry at all. It previews as text and can be edited now. Files the app knows by name - Makefile, LICENSE - are edited in the app instead of being handed to another one, on the Mac as well.

Clearing the last diagnostics message works. In Settings > Account, the "ended without warning" line stayed on screen after Clear was tapped, even though it had been cleared. It now disappears immediately, on the Mac and on iPhone.

The built-in text editor on the Mac is a real window now, with a tab per file. It used to open as a sheet, which could not be resized or zoomed, so a file sat in a fixed slab no matter how big your display was. Open a second file and it becomes a second tab in the same window; open one that is already open and its tab comes forward. Save and Close sit on the tab row, the title bar says which file you are in and where it lives, and a tab with unsaved changes is marked - closing the window asks before it discards anything. Selecting several files and pressing F4 opens them all.

The Mac's file preview got the same treatment. F3 opens a resizable window with a tab per file, and a line longer than the window can now be scrolled to its end - previously it was cut off at the edge with no way to read the rest. Selecting several files previews them all.

Line numbers in the Mac editor line up with their lines. Every number sat lower than the line it belonged to, by a gap that grew down the file, so on a wrapped file the first lines had no number at all and the last ones pointed at empty space. They also stayed put when the window was resized and the text rewrapped. Both are fixed, along with a number sitting slightly high against a blank line.

The editor follows your theme and text size while it is open. Changing the colour theme or the icon size used to leave the open editor with the colours and the font it started with - and on a dark theme that meant unreadable text until it was closed and reopened.

Files with no extension open properly on iPhone. A file like authorized_keys showed the grey "data" card instead of its contents and had no Edit entry at all. It previews as text and can be edited now. Files the app knows by name - Makefile, LICENSE - are edited in the app instead of being handed to another one, on the Mac as well.

Clearing the last diagnostics message works. In Settings > Account, the "ended without warning" line stayed on screen after Clear was tapped, even though it had been cleared. It now disappears immediately, on the Mac and on iPhone.

OneDrive. Connect with a personal Microsoft account and work in it like any other connection - browse, copy in and out, move, rename, delete. Work and school accounts are not supported yet; those need an administrator's consent we have not been able to verify.

SSH keys that never leave the device. Generate a key inside the Secure Enclave from the connection form, optionally behind Face ID or Touch ID. The private half cannot be exported or read by anything, EmpiricCommander included. One limit: Git over SSH still needs an imported key, because it reads the private key as text.

Also new

• Renames, copies and new folders now undo from the toast.
• On an iPad with a hardware keyboard, F3 and F4 view and edit by what a file contains rather than by its name - a text file with no extension opens as text, anything binary opens in the new hex viewer.
• Also on iPad: select a run of files by swiping across them with two fingers, and reach iCloud Drive straight from the sidebar.

Fixed

• A pane showing local files could report a network error left over from a connection you had navigated away from.
• The first time a purchase is linked to an Empiric account, the app now tells you which account it landed on instead of doing it silently.

Updating from 2.5.0 or older? You are also picking up: OneDrive aside, the multi-select bar and photo stepping across every source including SFTP, S3 and WebDAV (2.8.0); dependable external drives, renameable external folders, and no permission dialog at every Mac launch (2.7.2); Photos finally opening on a Mac (2.7.1); fixes for Compare and Disk Usage crashes that had been in every version since 1.5.1 (2.7.0); and compressing to ZIP directly on a remote pane (2.6.0). Full history: https://www.empiricapps.com/empiric-commander/changelog

Fixed

• A crash when opening a file's menu in a folder on a USB drive or external folder.
• More reliable previews for photos and documents in external folders on iPhone.

Updating from 2.8.0 or older? You're also picking up: stepping through photos with a swipe (iPhone/iPad) or the arrow keys (Mac) on every source, including SFTP, S3 and WebDAV (2.8.0); dependable external drives on iPhone - a pulled drive no longer leaves a stale listing, and external folders can be renamed (2.7.2); and fixes for Compare and Disk Usage crashes that had been in every version since 1.5.1 (2.7.0). Full history: https://www.empiricapps.com/empiric-commander/changelog

Step through your photos. With an image open, swipe (iPhone/iPad) or use the arrow keys (Mac) to move to the next one - on every source, including SFTP, S3, WebDAV and the Photos library. Only images are in the run, the position counter agrees, and on remote sources each step downloads just what you're looking at plus one neighbour.

• Redesigned multi-select bar on iPhone: five actions that always fit, the rest under More - nothing gets cut off, whatever the destination's name.
• External Folders now sits above Connections in the iPhone sidebar, so your drive is one tap away even with many servers saved.
• New on Mac: the app's own CPU and memory usage at the right of the status bar (Settings > General to hide it).
• Enter confirms dialogs when using a hardware keyboard on iPhone and iPad.
• Security improvement to sign-in.

External drives on iPhone, made dependable. This release fixes the full lifecycle of a USB stick or SD card: a pulled drive no longer leaves a stale listing behind, a re-inserted drive can be read again without re-picking it, and folders on an absent drive show a clear "Not connected" row with a reconnect hint instead of a permission error. External folders can now be renamed, and rows are labeled by the drive's own name instead of a UUID. Also fixed: the Devices list notices a drive arriving, Photos Compare no longer offers to duplicate an album onto the drive that already holds it, and on the Mac the permission dialog at every launch is gone and a local sidebar click while browsing a remote stays local.

Fixed

• Photos now opens on a Mac. Until this build the app could not ask for access to your photo library: the system declined to show the request, so 2.7.0 reported the library as unavailable with nothing you could have done about it. This build asks. Grant access when it prompts, then quit and reopen EmpiricCommander once - the Photos pane does not pick up the grant until you do.
• The Photos tab comes back as Photos. After quitting and reopening, it could return as your file system while still carrying the name - and because the app no longer recognised it, clicking Photos again added a second tab beside it.
• And it comes back where you left it. A tab you closed inside All Photos or an album reopened at the top of the library.
• Opening a photo no longer warns about a large download over the network. Your photo library is on the device, and it was being treated like a remote folder for files whose size we cannot ask for in advance. Photos that live only in iCloud still ask first, because those really are fetched.
• A photo library you have not granted access to now says so, instead of reporting a lost connection and offering to reconnect to something that was never a connection.

Updating from 2.6.0 or older? You are also getting 2.7.0, which is where Photos arrived and where three crashes went: Compare and Disk Usage could each close the app - on every version since 1.5.1, not only the last one - and the Files.app extension stopped working entirely once you had more than about six saved connections. Upload progress on Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Azure and WebDAV now moves while the file uploads instead of sitting at 0% and jumping. Everything further back is listed in the changelog on the EmpiricCommander site.

Fixed

• Compare could close the app when two files in a folder shared a name - which happens in a photo library, and can happen on Google Drive. It has done this in every version since 1.5.1, not only the last one. It now compares what it can and says how many it could not match.
• Compare also called two files identical when it knew neither one's size. It now says it did not compare them.
• Disk Usage could close the app on a folder with tens of thousands of files, again in every version since 1.5.1. The list is built as you scroll, and the chart draws the largest entries with the rest folded into one.
• The Files.app extension could stop working entirely once you had enough saved connections: it was handing the system a marker larger than the system allows, and the extension shut down on every attempt to list your connections. The fault is as old as the extension; 2.6.0 made that marker bigger and brought the failure point down from roughly fourteen connections to about six.
• Progress no longer sits at 0% and jumps: the bar moves while a file uploads on Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Azure and WebDAV, and the transfer card shows how many files of the batch are done.
• Copying from Photos held every file in memory as it went, which on videos could reach well over a gigabyte. It now goes through disk, and a copy that used to peak at 1.36 GB peaks at 207 MB.
• Item counts are written as plain digits again - "13764 items", not a number that reads as a decimal.

New on iPhone and iPad

• Your photo library is now a place you can copy out of. Photos appears beside your connections - All Photos, Recents, Favourites, Screenshots, Videos, Albums and Years - and anything in it can be copied to a drive, a NAS, a server or a bucket. Files.app cannot see Photos at all, which is why this has never been possible from a file manager on iOS.
• The copy is the original, byte for byte, so dates and locations travel with it. You pick the folder layout and the naming before anything is copied and each choice shows an example of its own output, a summary tells you how many photos and videos you selected and how many files that becomes, iCloud originals are fetched first on their own progress line, and running the same album again copies only what is new.
• On a Mac, Photos may report your photo library as unavailable in this build, even with access granted. It works on iPhone and iPad. The next build fixes the Mac, and until then there is nothing you need to change on your side.

Updating from 2.5.0 or older? You are also getting the releases in between: cloud transfers that keep running after you leave the app or lock the screen, Dropbox uploads over 150 MB, Copy to and Move to on iPhone, and compressing to ZIP straight on a remote pane. Everything further back is listed in the changelog on the EmpiricCommander site.

New

• Compress to ZIP on a remote pane. Select files or folders on SFTP, SMB, S3 or any connection and archive them in place - the round trip happens for you, and cancelling leaves nothing behind on the server.
• A different phrasing for an AI commit message. The Draft button becomes Try another phrasing once it has written something, and leaves your own text alone.
• A warning before opening a remote file in another app, where your edits would stay in the copy. Editing with Open With or the built-in editor still saves back to the server.

Fixed

• Saving a Google Drive file could create a second file named as a long string of letters and numbers, leaving the original unchanged. If you edited files on Drive with an earlier version, look next to the original for such a file - it holds that edit.
• Saving twice in a row from an external editor could cancel the first save and lose the second. Both now arrive.
• A failed download could be handed to Quick Look as though it were the document. The error now says what happened - including when the file is a Google Docs document with nothing to download.
• Compressing a large folder on a remote could fail with an error naming a temporary file. The archive is uploaded before it is cleaned up.
• A saved password edited with iCloud sync on could be stored twice, and which one was used was undefined. One password, and it is the new one.
• Downloads no longer keep a second copy of every file in a hidden cache.

On iPhone and iPad

• Share a remote file. The file is downloaded first, so what you send is the file on the server, not a local one that happens to share its path.
• Preview a .pages, .numbers or .key stored on a server. Tapping one opens the document instead of dropping you inside the package folder.
• A file edited from Files.app on a Google Drive connection reported success without uploading anything. It uploads, and says so when it cannot.
• One connection to a server that is off no longer stops the whole EmpiricCommander folder in Files.app from updating. Unreachable servers show a file that names the host.
• A connection deleted or renamed in the app now reaches Files.app. If a folder still looks stale, Settings > Connections > Refresh Files App Listing.

Files over 150 MB now upload to Dropbox. They previously failed after minutes of copying, because Dropbox's single-request upload has a hard limit and we had no other path; large files are now sent in pieces.

On iPhone

• Send a file straight to the other pane: Copy to and Move to now sit in the row menu and in the selection bar, and they name the destination.
• Connections in the Files app work again. The extension could not read saved passwords once iCloud sync had touched them, so every folder opened empty.
• A connection whose password cannot be read now says so in a file you can open, instead of showing an empty folder.

Fixes

• The copy confirmation on iPhone no longer closes itself before you can tap it.

Cloud transfers now keep running when you leave the app or lock the screen - it's on by default. Large uploads and downloads for S3, WebDAV and Dropbox, plus Google Drive downloads, are carried by the system and finish in the background. SFTP, FTP and SMB still pause until you reopen the app.

Transfers - one progress bar per batch that no longer restarts at every folder, and a card that says what is moving, from where, to where. A transfer that pauses now says so on the Lock Screen instead of quietly disappearing. Cancel really stops a background transfer - previously the file could still land afterwards. Failed uploads report the failure instead of reporting success.

Files and folders - Get Info shows folder size: counted automatically on this device, on demand for a server. On the Mac, extract an encrypted ZIP straight from a server, with the password prompt where you'd expect it. Deleting a file you had just copied now clears the clipboard, so Paste can't fail on something that's gone.

Git - draft a commit message from your staged changes, on iPhone, iPad and Mac. It fills in instantly and refines itself using Apple's on-device model - nothing leaves the device, and anything you type wins.

Fixes - uploads to self-hosted S3 (MinIO, Wasabi, Spaces) work in the background; they were being signed incorrectly and refused. Dropbox no longer fails a batch when it asks us to slow down. Settings now shows the version and build number on iPhone and iPad. Connections you delete no longer linger in the Files app. Testing a connection to a server that never answers fails with a message instead of spinning.

Dropbox support - connect your Dropbox account and browse, upload, download, and sync files side by side with local storage, SFTP, FTP, S3, Azure, WebDAV, and SMB.

• Git: clone shows real progress, and Git LFS repositories are detected and reported clearly
• Clearer errors: a failed batch names the exact files, and illegal characters in filenames are called out
• Fixed: the Git Log commit detail pane could spin forever on macOS
• Stability fixes for network discovery on IPv6 and transfer progress

Archives stop mangling accented filenames, and the toolbar tells you what you are pointing at.

• A .zip made by Finder or the zip command stores UTF-8 names without flagging them, and the format says to read those as MS-DOS CP437. So café.txt showed up as line-drawing characters, in every archive, for as long as archive browsing has existed. Both listing and opening are fixed. Files an earlier version already extracted keep their old names - make the archive again to fix them.
• Toolbar buttons now highlight under the pointer, so it is clear which one you are about to click.
• Compare and Sync Folders gained a Close button.
• Folder Sync, Compare and Checksum now run on iPhone too, so the same three tools exist on all three platforms.

Git, largely rebuilt, plus the first release where a disconnected drive stops lying to you.

• Pull now merges, like git pull on the command line, instead of only fast-forwarding.
• Conflicts have a resolution screen: pick a side per file, or abort. Binary files are labelled.
• Finishing a merge writes a real merge commit with every parent.
• Clone, fetch and push over SSH, with host key verification and a Security tab to review or forget trusted keys.
• Cloning into a folder that already exists no longer deletes it.
• Push over HTTPS: Settings holds your name, email and access token.
• Stage, unstage, discard and diff a single file from the row menu.
• Errors name the cause: a token without write access, a key with no passphrase, and a stopped merge are no longer all "Git error".
• Eject a drive and the pane tells you, instead of showing files that are gone. Transfers to it fail rather than hang.
• Escape closes every sheet, and Extract is in the right-click menu.

If you already own EmpiricCommander, 2.0 is free. Nothing to claim and no code to enter - sign in as usual. EmpiricCommander is $49.99 for new purchases from 2.0; your licence already covers it. Mid-trial right now? Get in touch and we will sort you out at the old price.

An SSH terminal. A real remote session against the server in the other pane, with host-key verification before you connect. No separate app, no second saved host, no second set of credentials.

SSH keys. Ed25519, RSA and ECDSA P-256/384/521, with passphrases, used by both the terminal and SFTP transfers. RSA is now signed rsa-sha2-512/256, so a hardened server that refused EmpiricCommander 1.9 will accept 2.0.

Extract archives where they live. A zip on a remote server or in a bucket extracts in place - no download, unpack, re-upload.

Get Info. Size, dates, permissions and ownership for a file or a selection, local and remote alike.

Manage Connections, reworked. Search, sort, single-line rows and inline actions.

Deleting a connection now erases its keychain material with it. Previously the password, private key and passphrase outlived the connection.

Plus reliability and polish across the app. Requires macOS 15 or later.

EmpiricCommander 1.9.0 adds a built-in text editor: open a file, edit it in-app with syntax highlighting and line numbers, and save it back through any connection - local or remote. External editors remain the default; the built-in one is there when you want it. Plus reliability and polish across the app.

This update focuses on reliability and connectivity across your remote servers and cloud storage.

Safer file moves - replacing an existing file during a move now keeps your original intact if a transfer is cancelled or interrupted.

Self-hosted servers - connect to your own NAS or server that uses a self-signed certificate, with a security fingerprint shown on first connect.

Sync across your devices - optionally keep your saved connections and workspaces on all your Macs and iPads with iCloud; passwords sync securely through iCloud Keychain and are never uploaded.

Honest transfer progress - clearer, more accurate progress for uploads and downloads, including large files.

Docker containers - a stopped container now shows a clear message with a Start button instead of a connection error, so you can start it and browse right away.

Many remote fixes - copying over an existing file now works reliably on FTP and Google Drive, an unauthenticated Google Drive prompts you to sign in instead of showing an empty folder, plus general transfer and connection reliability polish.

Thanks for using EmpiricCommander.

This update focuses on stability and reliability.

More reliable SFTP connections, including servers reached by hostname: EmpiricCommander now tries IPv4 and IPv6 addresses in turn instead of giving up on the first one, so connections that used to fail with a network error now go through.

A cleaner terminal: the built-in terminal now has proper padding so text no longer sits flush against the left edge.

Fixed an edge case in optional iCloud connection sync where a connection deleted on one device while sync was off could reappear later.

Additional performance and reliability improvements across file transfers and remote connections.

Thanks for using EmpiricCommander. Questions or feedback? Reach us from the About window.

Workspaces. Save a full dual-pane layout - both sides, every tab, sort and view settings - as a named workspace, then switch between them with Ctrl-Cmd-1 through Ctrl-Cmd-9. Reorder them, and the app remembers the one you used last.

Encrypted archives. Password-protected ZIP archives now open and extract in place (classic ZipCrypto).

Steadier cloud connections. Large downloads from cloud storage are more reliable and show real progress instead of sitting at zero.

Connection sync (optional). Turn on iCloud sync in Settings to keep your saved connections in step across your devices. Passwords stay in the keychain, and it stays off until you switch it on.

Data-safety in Compare and Copy. When a file on a drive cannot be read, Compare no longer treats the two folders as identical and Copy no longer skips it silently - unreadable items are called out so an incomplete copy can never look complete.

Stability. Folder-copy is always cancelable, a canceled transfer is no longer reported as a failure, the workspace keyboard shortcuts are fixed, and deleting a saved workspace now works from the Manage sheet. Plus a number of transfer and reliability edge cases cleaned up.

Connect to Windows shares, NAS drives, and Mac File Sharing. EmpiricCommander now speaks SMB natively. Browse your NAS or a shared folder on another computer, copy files in both directions, and stream large files without loading them into memory. Nearby servers are discovered automatically - most of the time you just click and connect.

What's new:

• SMB network shares. Connect to any Windows, NAS, or macOS shared folder. Large transfers stream with live progress and cancel cleanly. Servers that only offer the obsolete SMB1 protocol are refused with a clear explanation instead of a silent downgrade.
• Keep browsing while you transfer. A large SMB copy no longer blocks the same share - navigate, list folders, and queue more work while it runs.
• Verify contents in Compare Folders. Re-check same-size files byte-for-byte with SHA-256 and catch silent corruption a size-only check would miss. Compare also gained one-click "Copy Left-only" / "Copy Right-only" buttons.
• Folder Sync across drives. Sync between local folders and network shares in both directions, with content verification after each copy.
• Sort your way. New Sort menu in the toolbar: name, size, date, kind, ascending or descending, and Folders First on or off.
• Aliases and symlinks navigate in-app. A link to a folder opens right in EmpiricCommander - never a surprise Finder window - and a link to a file opens its target. Cloud folders from ~/Library/CloudStorage get their own sidebar section.
• Packages open like Finder. Apps and other bundles (.app, .xcodeproj, .key) open in their owning application; "Show Package Contents" browses inside when you need to.
• Connection presets. Setting up Backblaze B2, Cloudflare R2, and other S3-compatible services is a two-field job.
• Safer big previews. Opening a large remote file asks before downloading, then streams it - archives open straight into the built-in archive browser.

Fixes and reliability:

• A cancelled copy or move never leaves a partial file behind, and a cancelled move never touches the original - on every connection type.
• Multi-file transfers from a network share no longer stall after the first file.
• Editing a connection reconnects the open pane immediately - no more retrying with the old settings.
• Network timeouts everywhere: a blocked or dead connection reports an error instead of spinning forever.
• Dozens of smaller stability and polish fixes across transfers, browsing, and previews.

New: Finder aliases and symlinks now open inside the app - double-clicking an alias to a folder navigates into it instead of bouncing to Finder. A new Cloud Folders sidebar section lists your Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive and other cloud folders managed by macOS.

Folder Compare: new opt-in Verify contents (SHA-256) mode re-checks same-size files by hashing their actual bytes - catches silent corruption from bit rot or failing drives, with progress and cancel.

WebDAV: fixed "Test Connection" reporting "No access to this folder" for valid Nextcloud settings, wrong-password errors are now clearly labeled, and connections use https on every port.

Security hardening: encrypted connections enforced for WebDAV, S3, and Azure custom endpoints, protection against malicious archive and server-provided file names, and temporary download files are now cleaned up automatically.

Smoother large transfers. Copying or uploading very large files - multi-GB videos, disk images, backups - now streams to the destination with a small, steady memory footprint instead of loading the whole file at once. Big transfers stay smooth and reliable.

External folders and USB drives on iPhone and iPad. The companion iPhone and iPad apps can now browse folders from the Files app and external USB/SD drives in place, and move files to a server without leaving copies - the same workflows macOS already supports across the suite.

Fixes and polish. General reliability and interface refinements.

Faster, smarter Folder Sync. Identical files are now correctly skipped instead of being copied again every run, so backing up folders of projects is dramatically faster. Cancel and Pause now take effect immediately during a sync.

Open password-protected ZIPs. EmpiricCommander asks for the password and lets you browse and extract encrypted ZIP archives, instead of showing an empty folder.

Unzip several archives at once. Select multiple archives and extract each into its own folder in a single step.

Summarize PDFs with on-device AI. Open a PDF in the preview and get a short, private summary - skim a long document without reading it all. Runs entirely on device.

Config files now preview as text. Dotfiles and extensionless developer files - .gitignore, .npmrc, .env.local, Dockerfile, Makefile, LICENSE and more - open in the built-in preview instead of falling back to a blank Quick Look.

Plus the usual fixes and polish. On-device AI needs a Mac with Apple Intelligence (macOS 26); the PDF summary covers the start of long documents. Everything else works as before.

Open password-protected ZIPs. EmpiricCommander now asks for the password and lets you browse and extract encrypted ZIP archives, instead of showing an empty folder.

Unzip several archives at once. Select multiple archives and extract each into its own folder in a single step.

Summarize PDFs with on-device AI. Open a PDF in the preview and get a short, private summary - skim a long document without reading it all. Runs entirely on device.

Config files now preview as text. Dotfiles and extensionless developer files - .gitignore, .npmrc, .env.local, Dockerfile, Makefile, LICENSE and more - open in the built-in preview instead of falling back to a blank Quick Look.

Plus the usual fixes and polish. On-device AI needs a Mac with Apple Intelligence (macOS 26); the PDF summary covers the start of long documents. Everything else works as before.

AI Summary for your files. Select one or more text files and get a short, private summary of each - skim code, config, JSON, CSV, or Markdown without opening them. Available from the right-click menu. Runs entirely on device.

Find space hogs in plain words. In Disk Usage, just describe what you're after - "over 100 MB not touched in a year", "big videos", "files older than 6 months" - and the view filters to match. Great for cleanup.

HTML files now render as pages in the preview, not raw source. Locked down for safety - no scripts run and nothing loads from the network.

Plus a larger, resizable preview window and reliability fixes for non-English text files.

On-device AI needs a Mac with Apple Intelligence (macOS 26); everything else works as before. Note: the on-device model doesn't support every language yet (Romanian content, for example, can't be summarized) - we surface a clear message when that happens.

Rename files just by describing them. Batch Rename has a new on-device AI command bar: type what you want in plain words - "prefix source files with code_" - and EmpiricCommander picks the right rename operation and fills in the details, with a live preview before anything changes. It runs entirely on your Mac, so it is free, needs no account, and your filenames never leave the device. Requires macOS 26 with Apple Intelligence; the full manual controls are always available.

A clearer, safer rename engine. Batch Rename is rebuilt around first-class operations - add prefix or suffix, remove text, digits, symbols, or spaces, change case, number, and change extension - with regex kept as a manual escape hatch. No operation can drop a file's extension by accident, and the live preview, conflict detection, and undo still have your back.

Summarize and explain files in preview. On a text, code, Markdown, or log file, Rich Preview can now summarize it - or explain what a script does - in an inline panel above the content, powered by Apple's on-device Foundation Models. Read-only and private: the file is never modified and nothing is sent to the cloud. Requires macOS 26 with Apple Intelligence.

Workspaces now save every tab, not just the active one. Saving a workspace captures all the tabs open in both panes - folders, remote connections, and terminals - together with your split layout and which tab was active. Reopening it restores the whole setup, so you can jump between complete working contexts in one click. The old "Update Paths" action is now "Update Tabs" and re-captures the full state. Workspaces you saved before this update keep working and convert to a single tab per side automatically.

More from Empiric Apps. The About window now features our other native Mac apps so you can discover them in one place.

Window title stays in sync. Fixed a case where the title bar could show a stale license or trial status after launch.

Plus behind-the-scenes improvements.

Fixes a sign-in issue where a Mac that had been offline for a few days could get bounced to a re-login prompt even though the Pro license was still valid. Being offline no longer signs you out - your license stays active and the app reconnects on its own when the network is back. Also cleaned up the sign-in dialog layout and made offline sign-in attempts fail fast instead of hanging.

Clicking files in a remote SFTP folder no longer freezes the UI. The file list, the preview side panel, and the right-click context menu were all running local filesystem checks (git status, permissions, symlinks) on paths that look local but aren't - on macOS this triggered the system auto-mount handler under /home and blocked the main thread for hundreds of milliseconds per click.

• Snappier remote browsing. Selecting files in SFTP / FTP / S3 / WebDAV / Dropbox / OneDrive / GDrive folders is instant again. Right-click also opens immediately instead of stuttering.

Polished the transfer overlay so a single copy no longer shows the same progress in three places at once.

• Cleaner transfer feedback. When the full-detail progress modal is open the queue summary above the shelf and the bottom-right status pill both step out of the way. Minimise the modal and the ambient indicators come back so you can click to re-expand.

SFTP downloads now stream chunk-by-chunk instead of buffering the entire remote file in RAM before writing to disk. The "0% for minutes then jump to 100%" symptom on multi-gigabyte downloads is gone - progress now reflects real download speed from the first chunk.

• SFTP streaming downloads. Memory footprint bounded to one 1 MB chunk regardless of file size. Multi-GB downloads no longer OOM on iPhone/iPad and the progress bar starts moving immediately.
• Clearer transfer overlay. The bytes line ("0 B / 200 MB") now shows as soon as the total is known, instead of staying blank until the first chunk arrives. Speed (MB/s) and ETA populate per chunk.

Transfer progress now reflects real upload speed. The progress bar previously pegged at 100% the moment your local file was read and then sat there for minutes while the upload finished - now bytes are counted as they actually land on the remote. Affects FTP, SFTP, Azure, Dropbox, WebDAV, Google Drive, OneDrive, and SMB transfers.

Multi-gigabyte SFTP and SMB uploads no longer load the whole file into memory. Chunks are pulled from the source one at a time and pushed straight to the wire, so memory footprint stays bounded regardless of file size. Fixes out-of-memory crashes on iPhone / iPad when sending large videos or disk images.

Duplicate scan filter now remembers what you set per folder. First time on ~/Downloads you tune the exclude globs and minimum size; the next visit reuses them. New Skip this dialog next time toggle starts the scan immediately on reopen - click Edit Filter in the results header to come back.

Archive (ZIP) creation no longer freezes when the destination already exists. Picking "Zip" on a folder whose .zip already sits alongside it now asks Replace / Keep Both / Skip instead of hanging on a stuck progress dialog.

Update dialog renders release notes as Markdown. Inline emphasis, code spans, and bullets format properly; users on 1.5.3+ will see this nicely from 1.5.4 onwards.

Telemetry endpoint sanitization. Defense-in-depth: the diagnostic telemetry uploader strips query strings and fragments before recording, matching the server-side stripQuery() already in place.

What's new in 1.5.2

• Transfer panel: honest progress UX. Scan phase now shows an indeterminate spinner with a live "Scanning <folder>: N file(s) / M folder(s)" label instead of a stuck 0% bar over a misleading "Zero KB / X KB" line.
• Large remote copies driven by real wire bytes. SFTP transfers > 10 MB drive the progress bar from TransferManager byte counts; previously the bar jumped from 0% to 100% at the end. Speed (MB/s) and ETA now populate live.
• Cancel feedback. Clicking the X on an active transfer flips the label to "Cancelling…" and dims the button. In-flight remote calls (FTP LIST, SFTP recursive walk) can take a few seconds to honor Task.cancel(); the new state removes the silent-freeze feel.
• Transfers panel auto-sizes to content height. Single active transfer no longer reserves a giant empty pane below the row.

v1.5.1 - stability + Dupes upgrade

SFTP cross-provider copy: scan + copy now run in a parallel pipeline, eliminating the multi-minute "Analysing" stall on multi-thousand-file folders and the Citadel.SFTPMessage.Status error 1 (EOF) some long batches hit.

Theme picker: Light/Dark/System now correctly disables itself when the selected Color Theme has a fixed scheme (no more invisible icons when forcing Light mode with Midnight / Rosé Pine / Dracula).

Duplicate Finder: scans run in the background. Close the window or tap "Run in Background" and the scan continues - progress shown in the bottom status footer. Reopen Dupes on the same folder and the view re-attaches to the running job.

Duplicate Finder: scan options before starting. Include only selected file categories (Images / Video / Audio / Documents / Code / Archives / Other), set min/max size, and exclude glob patterns. Eight sensible default excludes ship out of the box (node_modules, .git, build, .next, dist, .cache, Pods, DerivedData).

Git Projects (macOS). When the active pane is inside a Git repository, EmpiricCommander now shows a branch chip, a Git toolbar menu (Status, Commit with Stage All, Discard All, Stash, Switch Branch, Pull/Push/Fetch), a Log master-detail view with a branch/merge topology graph, a per-file context menu (Stage / Unstage / Discard / Show Diff), and SF Symbol status badges on file rows. Built on AsyncSwiftGit and a forked static-libgit2 with libgit2 1.9.1.

Docker / Lima / Colima containers (macOS). A new toolbar menu auto-discovers every Docker, Colima, and Lima socket on the machine and lists their containers. Click any container to open a new tab at its root and browse its filesystem read-only.

Locked Shelf. A new encrypted compartment inside the Shelf for credentials, recovery codes, and anything you don't want sitting in plaintext. AES-GCM at rest with a key derived from your passphrase via PBKDF2. Available on macOS, iPad, and iPhone.

iOS Files app integration (iPad, iPhone). EmpiricCommander connections now appear under Locations in the system Files app. All six remote providers (WebDAV, SFTP, S3, Google Drive, Azure, FTP) enumerate against the live backend through the new File Provider extension, so other apps can share, import, and export through EmpiricCommander without leaving Files.

Disk Usage drill-down + Top-10 (macOS, iPad). The treemap now supports drilling into subfolders with a path stack, breadcrumb, and Up button. A Top-10 sidebar lists the largest items in the current scan. Right-click → Delete with confirmation works in both bar-list and treemap modes.

Faster launch. The "Checking license..." screen is gone for users with a cached license or active trial. Verification runs in the background and the app opens instantly.

Google Drive integration redesigned. EmpiricCommander now uses Google's privacy-first drive.file scope: you pick the specific files or folders you want EmpiricCommander to access through Google's native Picker. The app never sees your full Drive. See the new docs page at /empiric-commander/docs/google-drive for the walkthrough. Existing Google Drive connections from v1.4 show an orange "Update Access" button on first launch; click it once to re-authorize under the new scope.

Localized paywall pricing. The in-app paywall now shows the correct price for your region, read from StoreKit. The hardcoded $29.99 USD string is gone.

Security & dependencies. Rebuilt the git stack on libgit2 1.9.1, libssh2 1.11.1, and OpenSSL 3.0.16, closing CVE-2023-48795 (Terrapin) and the libgit2 ≤ 1.6 heap-corruption advisory. Forked static-libgit2 to mburlac/static-libgit2 with explicit MIT licensing. Citadel upgraded 0.9.2 → 0.12.1. Every dependency is MIT, Apache, or BSD; no GPL/AGPL/LGPL anywhere, and every pinned version is CVE-free at release time.

First iOS and iPadOS release. Now available on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/empiriccommander/id6763745217. Dual-pane on iPad, single-pane on iPhone with Browse / Shelf / Cloud / Settings tabs. 8 storage backends out of the box: Local, iCloud Drive, SFTP, FTP, WebDAV, Amazon S3 and S3-compatible, Azure Blob, and Google Drive.

macOS 1.4.1 changes

• macOS Help menu now opens documentation on empiricapps.com instead of macOS's built-in "Help isn't available" dialog. Cmd+? launches the docs landing page; Keyboard Shortcuts and Release Notes have dedicated items; Send Feedback opens mail to support@empiricapps.com.
• Dragging a file out of a ZIP, 7z, or RAR archive into Terminal or Finder now pastes the real extracted file path. Previous builds pasted either the in-archive path or SwiftUI's empty drag-preview cache directory.
• Multi-device session isolation: signing in on Mac no longer kicks your iPhone, and vice versa. The same fix applies to email-login flows, which now bind to hardware identity from the start.
• Google Drive resumable upload for reliable large-file transfers. The transfer panel auto-dismisses when the queue is empty.

7-day free trial. $29.99 one-time purchase covers all v1.x updates and runs on up to 3 devices (1 Mac + 1 iPad + 1 iPhone).

Bug fixes and improvements.

Professional dual-pane file manager for macOS, iPad, and iPhone.